Andycat

Hi there, I did send a pm last week (or I think I did!)

Firstly, I'm old, crinkly, and a bit wary of all this..... but, Our new Ops Director and many staff want to use AI tools and I've been tasked with getting costs for licences for either C Pilot (I presume we just ask our licence reseller?) and ChatGPT (His, and therefore their, preference). Has anyone gone down the paid licence front for these products in a UK educational setting? All help gratefully received, my experiences with AI so far have been inaccurate and somewhat limp! Andy

This looks exactly the thing... are they happy with it? Ta, Andy

Hi, after a particularly fractious start of year due to new staff in both Office Manager and Data Manager posts, we're looking at a better (paperless?) way of onboarding new Year 7s. For info, we have SIMS (sorry), Synergy on top, we also use Firefly for parent messages etc. We once had School Comms too, maybe still have... At the moment, we get the CTF files in, but manually get forms filled in by parents confirming addresses, medical issues etc. and then these get typed into SIMS by ever decreasing office staff. Is there a better way of doing this, are there products or bolt ons that can do this all electronically? Send out a request then have the info synced into SIMS? We (IT) only get involved once the pupils are in SIMS, Locker does the account creation etc and it's quite slick once the correct info is in SIMS; this is the blocker at the moment! Any advice gratefully received! Andy

Daily - Withings Scanwatch Nova (I prefer a vibrating alarm for the marital harmony...) Daily if no alarm needed - Citizen Skyhawk Dress - any my dad left me! 1980's engraved Tissot, a Seiko Military, or an old Russian automatic are my favourites, although there are about 10 others (Rotary, Seiko, Citizen etc.)

Hi again, Does anyone know? Or is it in the black arts of MS licensing secrets.. I HAVE reached out to our licence supplier too, with no reply yet. Andy

Hello, I've been asked to look at getting some licences so we can search our whole estate of emails etc for SARs and dump as one file etc. Up to now we've been doing it the old fashioned way of asking staff to forward them on but our new Ops Director wants how it worked in his last place (an International Charity). What level of licence do we need to do this? Microsoft suggest E5... but is this the lowest level? We're currently all on A1! Thanks, Andy

Do you have to use a specific browser for this?

Hi all, We've recently employed a new Operations Manager, who is very keen to invest in training for the IT team. Actual Money. Now you've got up off the floor...., Has anyone any recent recommendations of training courses in the following areas, that we can all do either onsite or even off site (in works time!). 1. Cybersecurity (basics really!) 2. Managing Office 365 tenants 3. Switching (we now have a mix of Cisco, Aruba, Fortinet) 4. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance... Andy

Strange if so, it turns off even when displaying something.

Hi all, We've just had a Newline Screen installed as part of a 3rd party renovation. Seems a well connected bit of kit, but the screen turns off after 30 minutes. The only settings we can find are the android bit, where it says tablet screen turns off after 30 minutes, but can't find any "TV" settings. Has anyone used these before?

I had mine 2 years before the battery (half of it) failed, so it's already scrap.... Didn't stop me upgrading to a 12 though!

https://enviroelectronics.co.uk EnviroElectronics. Been great for me for years, and for many others. Will also leave a bin or cage that they collect when full.

That was what we were told (just going through it now). We're sticking with OVS while we can!

Cheers, will look into this, although we use a different Apple id format than their email address in Entra (historic but now ingrained...). - - - Updated - - - Thanks, was looking for a no touch approach!

We've been an iPad school for many, many years, and have always created Managed Apple ID's manually using Salamander and uploading to School Apple Manager via SFTP. SIMS is our MIS. Is there a more modern way? Automated? I know there's directory sync, but this never worked with SIMS. I've just had an email from Apple about Claris Connect but this seems paid, and doesn't mention SIMS. We use Locker Connect for everything else, but I'm not aware if this integrates with Apple School Manager either last time I looked! Has anyone found an automated/sync way, rather than an annual/termly manual upload? Thanks in advance!

We've had Mackie, Soundcraft, Yamaha and Allen And Heath here over my many years. The 2 surviving, and most reliable, are an Allen and Heath Qu32 and a Yamaha. Mackie lost channels over a few years, and the Soundcraft blew power supplies. YMMV

My Sennheisers have leads out the back to allow extending your antennas, although mine go to a proper fixed antenna on the wall in the Hall

Hi all, We're replacing 55 staff laptops and it's whittled down to the 3 options, all with 5 yr warranty. Prices are different but what are peoples recent experiences with the Dell 3540 or Stonebook Pro? We already have the HP Probook 450 on site, and have had a few issues with the cases, even though they're for staff use. Thanks in Advance, Andy

We're just replacing our core at the minute, with 2 x Aruba 8320 48 port. Edge is mainly sturdy (old) Cisco 2960 that seem to live forever, and refurbs are cheap and reliable. We'll do these over the next few years, but we're a big site with 50 odd edge switches in 6 cabs.....

Hi Jon, We've used you for Microsoft licensing for years, but with all the recent changes, who is best to contact for this year? I've previously had contact with Kate Devaney(?) Andy

We're planning on starting to replace 100 projectors next year, not great timing! Staff here still prefer a projector over a TV (we have some) and are asking for IWB to removed and replaced with normal dry wipe boards. They do have Apple TV and iPads though.

Yes, every half hour!

Biostore ID manager units.

We've been Canon for 8 years, with Uniflow. Been pretty painless once setup!